Civil Parking Charge Notice at Lidl

Seriouslyworried_2

Hi

I parked in a Lidl car park and overstayed by only 19 minutes.


The car is registered in my cousins name, but i am insured to drive. He recently moved address, but did not change the address, so the notice went to his previous address and redirected to his new address and forwarded to me, THREE WEEKS LATER.


As you can imagine by then the reduced charge due date had passed, therefore the full fee of £90 was due. I have only just come out of hospital with pancreatitis and am not working due to sickness - in blind panic emailed them letting them know we had received this letter late because we had moved and will appeal to the amount of £90.


This was before I came across this forum. Is it too late to ignore, my cousin is fuming and wants this cleared as the car is registered in his name. Any advices would be welcome.

peter_the_piper

Yes, its easy. Email them to say you were the driver and get them to send paperwork (begging letters) and them ingore them. Your cousin should then be out of the loop.

Stroma

Why is your cousin fuming ? Doesn't he realise that this is a complete scam ? Does it mean that he would pay a scam invoice from a cowboy company ?

The advice is to email the said company and admit that you were responsible for the vehicle on the date in question, just give them your name and address, don't admit liability just or anything like that.

Then once they are writing to you just ignore them, they cannot then go back to the registered keeper as they know who was driving.

Half_way

let them know it was you driving, ignore their threat o gram, and educate your cousin, it may save him some money.

Seriouslyworried_2

Thanks for your advices.

I had sent an email to them as mentioned in my original message, did not admit liability, or give them my address, I merely stated I was appealing against paying the full rate of £90. Would this make a difference? they only have my email address.

Stroma

No you need to give your name and address otherwise they'll continue to hassle your cousin.

Coupon-mad

Seriouslyworried wrote: »

Thanks for your advices.

I had sent an email to them as mentioned in my original message, did not admit liability, or give them my address, I merely stated I was appealing against paying the full rate of £90. Would this make a difference? they only have my email address.

No difference but you need to email them again quickly, a further appeal with your postal address and saying you were driving. I assume this is Parking Eye? Loads and loads of threads about ignoring them or trying to get a verification code out of them to take these scam PCNs to POPLA appeal stage (which costs THEM money!).

Normally you can just ignore this scam and so should your cousin as he is a bit deluded by this scam isn't he? (sorry but that is deluded if he's fuming and 'wants this cleared!' Does he fume when he gets phishing emails and junk mail too? This scam is very much the same impersonation of authority. It's NOT a fine).

Anyway to get him out of the loop, as already advised, just appeal again and demand a POPLA 'verification code' this time. Even if you don't win at POPLA you can go back to 'ignore mode' because it's not binding on you - but at least all the remaining letters will be sent to you so you can ignore them.

Like all the other posters on this board, you have a fake PCN. Please tell your cousin to look at all the advice you have had and also the links I give you here.

I have ignored two of these fake PCNs, my 18 yr old niece has ignored EIGHT already as a new driver, mostly from Parking Eye! And I am in a job where I have an enhanced CRB check and I used to be Bank Manager 'back in the day' so am not the sort of person to risk my credit rating.

The truth is that the registered keeper (him) and the driver (you) can just ignore all the usual letters that will arrive. But it is only fair that you get to ignore the letters since you were the driver - and in telling the PPC that you were driving this removes your cousin from the equation completely - they can't write to him again after that, only you. The letters are easy to ignore and laugh at, when they arrive at the address of someone who knows it's all hogwash and not a real parking ticket at all.

The whole scam of fake PCNs relies firstly on people's ignorance of the fact that a random private company can't fine anyone, and secondly on their natural fear of parking tickets and the escalating costs/bailiff scenario (which does not even apply to a fake PCN). A bailiff can only be involved for a private company, if a person actually loses in a Court and then refuses to pay! Not going to happen.

Pretty much any thread on this parking board will tell you about Private Parking Companies (we call them PPCs for short but that's only an acronym for forums). The operate a very unsophisticated but sadly very, very lucrative scam. They just copy the look of a real parking ticket and - hey presto! - the cash rolls in from victims who know no better. It's not illegal because Lidl allow them to be there because the PPC pretends it's 'parking management'. IT IS NOT.

There is no fine, no CCJ, no bailiff, no debt, no effect on credit rating, no Court, no repercussions at all if you ignore this and the letters that follow...even if you lose at POPLA then ignore it afterwards.

Tick off the threatening letters, including the last letter, here.

Watchdog clip with expert Solicitor's opinion here.

Barrister's opinion - read the answer at the bottom, it's very clear! - here.

And here's a thread about POPLA:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=4263959

and a thread discussing a successful appeal to POPLA which involved Parking Eye - I recommend using a version of mulronie's wording in that thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=4447137

DID I SAY DO NOT PAY?!!!

Coupon-mad

Forgot to say - as well as hooking the PPC in your direction and getting a POPLA code to cost them money, also COMPLAIN to Lidl, to the Store Manager. You were recovering from a hospital admission and were ill so it's despicable that their parking agent should be allowed to gain from your extra 19 minutes needed to shop.

If it had been a long term disability you'd have been covered by the Equality Act and allowed more parking/shopping time by law. I don't see your situation as much different and I would tell Lidl very assertively that this is NOT on. We have seen Store Managers get these fake PCNs cancelled before (do not just phone them, go in personally and don't talk to anyone except the overall Store Manager).

Guys_Dad

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Yes, its easy. Email them to say you were the driver and get them to send paperwork (begging letters) and them ingore them. Your cousin should then be out of the loop.

If you want to go belt and braces, technically the Registered Keeper is the person who should notify the PPC who was driving, so I suggest that your cousin informs them of that as well.

Stroma

Guys_Dad wrote: »

If you want to go belt and braces, technically the Registered Keeper is the person who should notify the PPC who was driving, so I suggest that your cousin informs them of that as well.

No the RK doesn't have to do that, because sometimes they will not be aware on who is driving, for example if its a hired/leased car where there could be multiple drivers.

spacey2012

LIDL showing you how much they welcome you shopping with them.

Contact the council planning officer and ask him to find out what conditions were attached to the planning consent and if free parking was one of them.
If it is as this is what they apply for to lower rates ask him what he intends to do about LIDL charging you £90 to park there and how this effects the planning permission.
Also chase up the council business rates and instruct them that LIDL are charging for parking in their car park and ask why they are not paying correct rates for a charging car park.
Thats what it says it is ! A parking CHARGE.

This is how you beat these people.